The Death Box (Carson Ryder, Book 10)
Page 27
“Uh, Carson,” Roy said. “Didn’t you have a small request?”
I cleared my throat. “I’ve been, uh, intending to find another place, but it seems I’ve not quite located a suitable, uh …”
A frown from Bashore. “If you’re asking if you can remain here, we’re only here to transfer the property. I’m afraid you’ll have to—”
A knock at the door. Roy jumped up to answer it, good, since my legs felt dead.
There was a motel down the road I could move to this evening. Or rent storage space and bunk with Gershwin for a few days. Or I could ask Dubois to store my stuff in his garage and …
“Our new arrival,” Roy said, stepping back out to the deck. “To those who don’t know him I’ll introduce Doctor August Charpentier. Have a seat with the group, Doctor.”
My heart stopped. It was my brother, Jeremy, in his false identity. He sat and crossed his long legs, a picture of elegance in his sky-blue seersucker suit, open white shirt and blue-banded straw Panama. I concentrated on not keeling over as the head of FCLE’s investigative division handed coffee to my fugitive brother.
“Sorry to be tardy,” Jeremy said in a Frenchified accent. “I’ve been on the phone with my long-winded accountants. How are the proceedings going?”
“We’re making the transfer, sir,” Winquist said. “A wonderful site for multiple units, I’d say.”
Jeremy nodded. “Excellent, though my accountants just advised me to delay actual site development until several new tax issues are resolved. I’ll simply hold the property for a bit.”
“Accountants know best,” Bashore said.
“It does, however, leave me with a bit of a problem.”
“Which is, Doctor Charpentier?”
Jeremy cleared his throat as if preparing to ask a great favor, and turned to me. “I guess my question is, Mr Ryder, if you haven’t already made other plans … could you possibly remain here as a tenant? Keep the place safe and all?”
I tried to speak, couldn’t. I cleared my throat and tried again. “I, uh, guess that might work, Doctor,” I managed. “For a bit, at least.”
Jeremy clapped his hands. “Splendid. My cab awaits so I’ll leave you folks to work out the details. Rent of say, four hundred dollars a month?”
Winquist raised an eyebrow. “That seems exceedingly low, sir.”
“Then I’ll consider it an investment in law enforcement, an occupation that has always fascinated me.”
“Are you heading back to Kentucky, Doctor?” Bashore asked as Jeremy turned for the deck door.
“No, I’m staying a few days to check out local properties.”
I stood and walked him through the house as the lawyers scratched on papers. Roy followed to refill his coffee cup, too close for Jeremy and I to drop our façades.
“Local properties, sir?” I said, barely able to squeak out words.
Jeremy nodded as we reached the threshold, his hand on the knob. “I’m becoming attracted to sunnier climes, Mr Ryder. New worlds to conquer and all that.”
“Uh, where are you looking, sir?”
“I’m considering Key West. It has such a romantic history. I hear a lot of pasts have been buried out there.”
My mouth dropped open, and my brother’s grin went as wide as the horizon. He whispered, “See you soon, neighbor.”
And walked into the sunlight.
If you liked THE DEATH BOX, try:
THE KILLING GAME
He’s coming to get you …
After a humiliating encounter with a cop, Romanian immigrant Gregory Nieves launches a vendetta against the Mobile Police Department, Alabama. Nieves can’t fight a department, so he selects one man who symbolizes all men in blue: Carson Ryder, the MPD’s specialist in bizarre and twisted crimes.
Carson has never seen a killing spree like it: nothing connects the victims, the murder weapon is always different, and the horrific crime scenes are devoid of evidence. It almost seems he’s being taunted. Even laughed at.
Carson doesn’t know it yet, but he is caught up in a sadistic game of life and death. And there can only be one victor …
Click here to buy The Killing Game
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the fine crew at the Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency, and an equally splendid group at HarperCollins, UK, most notably Sarah Hodgson and Anne O’Brien. An ex-adman, I also recognize the too-often-unsung heroes in the Marketing department. Great job, all.
About the Author
J.A. Kerley spent years as an advertising agency writer and producer before his wife demanded he quit work and write a novel, which he thought a fine idea. The result was The Hundredth Man, the first in the Carson Ryder series. An avid angler, canoeist and hiker, Kerley has traveled extensively throughout the South, especially coastal regions such as Mobile, Alabama, the setting for many of his novels, and the Florida Keys. He has a cabin in the Kentucky mountains, which appeared as a setting in Buried Alive. He lives in Newport, Kentucky, where he enjoys sitting on the levee and watching the barges rumble up and down the Ohio River.
Also by J.A. Kerley
The Hundredth Man
The Death Collectors
The Broken Souls
Blood Brother
In the Blood
Little Girls Lost
Buried Alive
Her Last Scream
The Killing Game
Copyright
Harper
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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2013
Copyright © Jack Kerley 2013
Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2013
Jack Kerley asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780007493654
Ebook Edition © December 2013 ISBN: 9780007493661
Version: 2013-12-05
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e Death Box (Carson Ryder, Book 10)